| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
80.47 miles
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Altitude Gain:
6,929 ft
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Avg Speed:
16.53 mph
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Route:
Wilderness Ride
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Avg Grade: 0 %
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Max Grade: 0 %
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Max HR: 0 bpm
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Avg HR: 0 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Hills
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Bike: Look 585 Carbon Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Cloudy\Rain 72 F SW wind @ 2 mph |
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We drove down to Radford, VA for this hilly eighty mile ride today. We rode this course a few years ago, and I remembered it to be a pretty fun route. I put in a bad night with a queasy stomach and didn't get much sleep and was concerned about being able to finish the ride if my distress continued. Weather was cool seventy degrees, and there was only a very slight wind. Bad news was that thundershowers were forecast for four hours into the ride. With over a mile of elevation change and a suspect stomach, there was an excellent chance I would be getting wet. Ride was a show and go with the long ride heading out between 06:45 and 7:30. There weren't very many cars in the parking lot and only a few riders cruising around. Iron Doug and I got registered and headed out around 07:15. The course starts out at a Radford University center and the first two or three miles is an ascent on a twisting bike trail. I rode with Doug until we hit the road and the first fourteen percent grade. He danced out of the saddle up the steep section, and I followed about half way before giving up and sitting down. My legs were fine, but the acid in my stomach was roiling about most unpleasantly. The course is almost constant twisting rollers with a fairly decent climb thrown in about every ten miles. I kept a slow pace for the first hour and only saw one other rider who I passed on a climb. Stomach settled down after twenty miles and I was able to sip some water and got a gel pack down. Felt much better the second hour and rode fairly hard spinning the climbs and pushing the down hills. The riding was better than I remembered with scenic small villages, iron bridges and sections with thick trees and a heady forest smell. Saw a few riders at rest stops but didn't see any other riders until we hit the extra hilly section at the forty mile mark. The hills came quickly one after another, and I would occasionally glimpse other riders climbing the hills ahead as I descended. I caught a couple of riders on the climbs and one stayed with me for a few climbs. We paced each other up the hills and I was feeling pretty good. The other rider stopped at the fifty mile rest stop, and I kept on going as I had only drank a half bottle so far. I did stop at the sixty mile rest stop and topped off my water bottle as I knew if the body wanted water it would want it in big gulps. The attendants said there was only one big climb left in the last twenty miles of the ride. Caught two more riders on the last climb. One of them didn't want to get passed on the climb so things got fairly intense for a mile or so. The rider stopped at the next turn after the climb to wait for his friend that got dropped. A few rain drops started falling with about five miles to go. I was looping around a parking area trying to find the entrance to the bike trail that returns to the start when a local rider came up and started chatting. Chatted for a few minutes but told the guy I had to go as I really didn't want to get wet. The sky opened up when I was on the bike trail with a mile to go and was quickly soaked. Overall though this a fantastic course. It reminds me quite a bit of a rollercoaster. Although there was a good deal of climbing there weren't any epic climbs and it actually felt like there was more downhill than climb. Legs felt really good after the first hour and the only weak spot I had was on the first climb. It was a really good day on the bike overall.
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